What prompts saints to turn sinners?

The Japan News.Net
Monday 29th June, 2009 (IANS)

Why does a hard core reformer like the former New York governor Eliot Spitzer - previously known as the Sheriff of Wall Street - virtually turn from 'saint' into 'sinner' overnight?

Spitzer, once a hard-hitting prosecutor who routinely brought down the high and mighty for their crooked ways, ruined himself by being linked with a high-end prostitute.

A new Northwestern University study suggests that people with ample moral self-worth in one aspect of their lives can slip into immorality or opposite behaviour in other areas.

Their abundant self-esteem somehow seems to push them to balance out all that goodness.

Think, for example, of that sugar and fat-laden concoction that you wolf down after an especially vigorous run, said Douglas Medin, psychology professor at Northwestern University.

'That pretty much eliminates the benefits of running an extra 20 minutes,' he said. Conversely, the study shows, people who engage in immoral behaviour cleanse themselves with good work.

Simply stated, when people operate above or below a certain level of moral self-worth, they instinctively push back in the opposite direction to reach an internally regulated set point of goodness, said a Northwestern release.

Based on three experiments, the study of how moral behaviour is affected by internal self-regulation included 46 participants.

The research was published in Psychological Science.

Email this story to a friend

Comments on this story

Have your say on this story